


Elephants and Apples

by city_bright



Category: The Mindy Project
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 05:39:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11178204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/city_bright/pseuds/city_bright
Summary: Mindy and Danny take Leo trick or treating





	Elephants and Apples

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the anon who sent me this prompt because we've honestly been cheated from seeing baby Leo in a lion costume.
> 
> Originally posted on Tumblr.

Mindy opens the door with a facial expression that can only be described as indignant offense. Danny is wearing dark grey jeans with a light grey button up, and that is _not_ what constitutes as a Halloween costume.

“Danny, what the hell?” she scolds him, “you are not sticking with the jungle-wildlife theme we got going on here!” Mindy is wearing a sand colored blouse with makeshift giraffe spots on it tucked into a gold skirt, and Leo, dressed in a lion costume, is resting comfortably on her hip. 

Danny just shrugs as he crosses the threshold of her apartment and extends his arms to pick up Leo. “I’m wearing grey, aren’t I?”

“But you were supposed to be an elephant! How is anybody going to know that from your lame excuse of a Halloween costume?"

“I got you guys. Inference and what not.”

She rolls her eyes. “Oh, my god.” She disappears further into her apartment, and Danny assumes she left to finish getting ready, but she reappears with an elephant ear headband. 

“Nope. Absolutely not,” he decides, shaking his head.

“Danny! It’s Halloween, you have to!”

“No way, Mindy! I am not walking around New York with elephant ears, it is not going to happen.”

She smiles wickedly because she’s going to pull the father-son card he could never resist. It’s emotional blackmail, she knows, but she also knows that he will appreciate it in the future. “How is it going to look when Leo looks back at these photos and asks why you didn’t dress up? Come on, Danny! Be whimsical for once in your life, you’re going to be fine. You don’t want to disappoint Leo, right?”

He looks down at his son in his arms, chubby cheeks puffing out of the lion’s mane hat around his face, innocently chewing his tail, and he couldn’t resist. Danny sighs defeatedly, and before he knew it, Mindy squeals in delight and leaps forward to place the headband on his head. He recoils from her touch as she rearranges his hair.

“Hold still! I swear, you act more like a baby than Leo does, and Leo is an actual baby.” She steps back to view her work and nods in approval. Danny's novelty look peaks Leo’s interest, his arms outstretched trying to grasp the grey material. Mindy takes the opportunity of a distracted Danny to snap a few pictures, and her heart swells with happiness and pride as she takes photo after photo of Danny smiling down at his son. 

Mindy then moves to stand next to him to take a few selfies. Or thirty.

“Okay, that’s enough. I think we got it, let’s go.” Danny heads for the door, not waiting for a response from her. Little did he know, it gave Mindy the opportunity to take more photos.

Danny stops in the hallway to look back at Mindy, who’s smiling into her phone. “Hey, you coming?"

She looks up at him, her smile growing because he has a wide eyed look about him that’s hard to take seriously when he’s wearing elephant ears as big as his face. “Yeah, I’m coming.” 

After knocking on every single door within a one block radius, they decide to head back. They’re walking at a leisurely pace while kids are running past their legs, hyped up on sugar, and Mindy instinctively holds her sleeping little lion tighter to her chest.  

“I had fun, Min,” he says unexpectedly, shifting his body closer to Mindy’s to make room for the other trick or treaters walking past.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, we should do it again next year.” Danny begins to rummage through their shared green, leaf adorned bucket, looking for his preferred candy. He holds up a green apple caramel lollipop in victory and begins to unwrap it. “These are my favorite.”

“Really?!”

“Yeah, it’s like eating a caramel apple, but without the mess and hassle of eating a whole apple on a stick. It’s just not structurally sound, but this,” he waves his lollipop in the air, “this is perfect.”

“You’re so weird,” she laughs, “I don’t know why I’m surprised that your favorite candy is fruit based. You eat, like, three apples a day.”

“No, I don’t!” Mindy rolls her eyes because she has definitely seen him eat two in one day in at least one occasion. “I eat a normal number of apples for an adult human being. You, on the other hand, could stand to eat a few more apples.”

“Danny, I told you, I don’t allow fruit in my house!”

“Oh, my god.”


End file.
